The link below shows the area the couple was stuck. If you scroll way over to the right, the town of Paisley is where they probably came from off of highway 31 which runs roughly NW.

Google Map

I have a Magellan Roadmate model #1424 which has the options of Fastest Time, Shortest Distance, Mostly Freeways, Least use of Freeways.

The only thing I'd trust a GPS for routing me to would be something like "The Joe's Crab Shack restaurant in San Diego". And then, only if I were in San Diego to start with. I sometimes use a GPS to suppliment maps when on the highway (predicting time-of-arrival, etc.), but the GPS suppliments the maps, not the other way around. And just like I wouldn't follow a map onto a backwoods snowpacked road, I wouldn't follow a GPS there either.

In the backcountry, for hiking, GPS's can be great for finding out where you are, but again that should suppliment, not replace, your knowledge of determining your position by other means.

Just another link, worth the read IMO, regarding this:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/tech...article1413965/

Just pulled up the mapsource software that came with my Garmin Nuvi; Nf-2823 is shown as North Creek Rd (when the cursor runs over it) which connects to County Rd 216 which is a short jog over to Hwy 395. So the software does show a route through there but in the article the deputy sheriff calls it a dead end, so there's a disconnect between reality and the software (or the deputy is exaggerating and it's not really a dead-end, just impassable).

Just a thought, but Garmin should send these receivers with the preference defaulted to major highways and shortest time (rather than shortest route). The GPS should never have taken them off Hwy 31. That said,

I think that one thing most people don't realize (most of the average people) is that The way they get road information is by studying arial maps and digitizing the roads. What this means is that there is at some point a person (here comes the human error) is looking at a map trying to determin roads from rivers and horse trails.

The photos are usualy taken during the summer. This creates a contrast that lest the average person determin what is what with relaitive accuracy.

The catch is that if a map says there is a forest road or trail, and the human reading the map sees a line or a dark line on the arial photo they say it is a, "road"

As I read about all of you that study arial maps and study mutiple sources of maps, and even ask locals, I just feel like my prepairedness needs to take another step up! I am impressed and I have to say that is what I like about this site,, You all chalenge and teach me new things, and I don't get lazy.

"The GPS made me do it! The GPS made me do it!" Some people are just too stupid for words.

They have a 4x4 truck and a GPS. They can go anywhere, right?

Driving 31 or 395 in winter is serious business in central
Oregon. Wind chills in the dangerous zone are common, and there is very limited traffic or emergency services. They should be better prepared for getting un-stuck even if they
stayed on the highway.

Greenhouse people.

I disagree. Their truck got stuck and they had to be pulled out, but that's it. They were fully prepared and able to wait three days in freezing weather, and we don't know how long they could have waited. They had a plan B and it worked. That's not a sign of "greenhouse people".

The overhead aerial maps of Paisley OR show that in Paisley the turn they probably made was onto a broad, paved road, as wide as any other. It's not called a Forest Service at that point and it appears to be paved for about a mile.

I'm not sure if they saw anything at that turn that should have stopped them. The GPS software says turn here, the road looks as good as the highway, etc. The error is later when it should have been clear the road had become way too narrow and unpaved...

Lesson: Google Earth is your friend and it's free. I don't go anywhere new, even in town, without looking over aerial pictures of the entire route. The car's GPS gives me an arrival time estimate but I know where I'm going before I get in the car.

I don't see the plan B unless it was the cell phone.

They were lucky, they managed to get cell coverage and the weather
was good. No cell coverage, sub zero temperatures and high winds they could have ended up like the Stolpa's or worse the Kim's.

At one time there was only 1 LEO for the whole county. That is
one of the most remote areas of the country and they had to drive
on unpaved roads up into a mountain range to get to the spot they were stuck.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights2_dmsp_big.jpg

See the upper left black spot in the USA? That is where they
were.

Not having a shovel and chains is not being prepared for winter
driving there. Leaving the pavement with only one mode of
transportation in those conditions is foolish.